Missing A Piece
by DraXXter
Summary: Unconventional approach to FT. What secret did Natsu hide from everyone? How will it affect with his relationship with the guild? There will be pairings, don't know what yet. And this is something about this fic, Natsu is a single father, for now. It would be very much appreciated if you could review.
1. Chapter 1

I don't own Fairy Tail, all rights belong to their respective creators.

"Speaking."

"_Thoughts"_

* * *

A grumbling man in white knee-length trousers with a black overcoat that had golden trimmings was walking out of a train with his legs shaking.

"I'm never gonna go on a train." He whispered before vomiting stomach acid on the pier of the train station. A blue cat with a green backpack was walking next to him, giggling at the discomfort of his traveling companion.

"Oh c'mon Natsu. We can't walk everywhere and I can't fly you all the time either." The cat said, freaking out the conductor even more.

"I know Happy but this is just torture. I need to get rid of this motion sickness soon, I can't take Lily with me if I'm vomiting all over the place." The man said and wiped sweat from his brow and blowing the ends of his bright pink hair out of his face. Happy just shaked his head and continued walking, not noticing that the door had closed on Natsu and left him inside the train with a green face.

"I hope we find Igneel today Natsu." The cat said, not looking behind him as he was sure that Natsu was following.

"Natsu?" Happy said with a questioning tone and panicked when he noticed Natsu's head sticking out of the window with a alarmingly green tint.

"You're supposed to help me Happy, not leave me to the train." Natsu said as he finally had been able to get back to the train station.

"Where are we again?" He continued when his stomach stopped doing backflips and trying to come out of his mouth.

"Hargeon, the port city with...dun dun duu... FISH." The blue cat shouted the last word with drool pooling under his feet. Natsu grinned at the sight as it always cheered him up to see his adoptive son get excited about fish. His grin faltered when he remembered why Happy liked fish and when Happy saw Natsu's face he calmed down, knowing exactly why his grin had faded. "_You have to move on sometime Natsu, she would've wanted that._" Happy thought to himself.

***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***

A blond girl was walking along a dirt road, feeling tired as she had to walk from the previous town over. She was trying to save money as she had heard that this town, the port city of Hargeon had a magician shop and she was very keen to see what they were selling. The loud grumble from her stomach reminded her that she also needed to eat, her figure would not maintain itself. "_C'mon Lucy! You can do this. It's just around the corner._" She thought to herself, trying to cheer herself on as the walk had been long. Lucy was just glad that Hargeon had been so close that she did not try to camp outside. It was not her thing after all as she had delicate skin, not to mention the damage it would do to her hair.

She was dragging her feet when she finally entered the city through a stone archway that had large wood and iron doors. Lucy then proceeded to ask the guard at the gate about the magic shop she was looking and thanked with her usual cheery attitude and winked at the guard. She laughed inwardly at the blush she got from the guard and felt good about herself. Lucy almost made it to the shop, she was pinned down on the ground by a herd of frenzied fangirls shouting Salamander-sama with a very high-pitched sound. "_Salamander? The fire mage with a one of a kind magic? This I got to see." _She thought and got up from the road. Lucy dusted herself, looked around and went over the huge crowd of fangirls she spotted in the distance.

When she got to the crowd she saw a tall and slim man with spiky blue hair and a dark-colored tattoo over his right eye with the shape of an X. Lucy felt heat rising to her face and a loud thumping noise from was ringing in her ears as she looked at the man. "_W-what is this feeling? Am I getting excited to see a famous mage or...is this LOVE?" _She shouted to herself inside her mind as her eyes got a little glassy. She was interrupted by a shove when a man pushed himself through the crowd.

"Igneel. Igneel?" The man kept saying as he made his way through the throngs of people. Salamander was taken a bit aback at the sudden appearance of the man but he didn't let his glamorous smile falter.

The women surrounding the Salamander grew noticeably cold when the man looked at Salamander's face and slumped with an audible groan.

"Not him either, dammit." The man said and Lucy noticed that the man had pink hair. "_Who has pink hair?_" She thought to herself before starting to make way over him to say thanks as she had seen the rings in the other mans fingers and came to the conclusion that his rings had, most likely, charm magic in them. Lucy only took two steps when the other women in the group came out of the stupor they had been after the obvious disappointment of the pink haired devil.

"How dare you disrespect Salamander-Sama! Die you mongrel!" Where the loudest shouts from the group as it started to kick and hit the man who had been knocked in the ground. Lucy was just about to go to his help when there was a sudden growl from coming from the ground.

"GET THE FUCK OFF OF ME!" was the loud shout and the man rose from the ground with flames flickering around his arms and his eyes seemed to burn with irritation. The women took steps back as the sight gave them a scare.

"Now now young man. No need to shout and ladies, I think he meant no disrespect." Salamander said and walked over to the pink haired man to offer him the sign he was holding.

"Here, you can this. I know you came to get this." Salamander continued without giving the other man a chance to speak.

"Now I must be off, and you ladies are all welcome to my party! Nine o'clock at the harbor! In my ship! Be there or be square!" The man shouted with a grand flourish. He took his cape in his hand and took off from the place with a purple flame carrying him over to the harbor.

Lucy walked towards the pink haired man who was staring at the sign in his hand, with the signature Salamander, with disbelief in his eyes.

"Are you okay?" She asked the man and brought him out of the amazement.

"Huh? Oh yeah, I'm fine." The pink haired man said and flashed a grin that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"I'm Lucy and I'd like to thank you for your help." She said and offered her hand.

"I'm Natsu, this is Happy and what help?" Natsu said and took a look at the younger woman standing in front of him. She had brown eyes and blond hair with a ponytail on the side, which was tied with a blue ribbon. She had blue and white tank-top with a blue skirt and black knee-length boots.

"That asshole was using charm and almost got me, you knocked me when you came over so I was brought out of it." Lucy explained as Natsu kept looking at her with a confused face.

"Oh, no problem. I was just trying to get to him so no need to thank." Natsu said and turned his back on the blond with a wave of his hand.

"I'd still like to thank you. Let me buy you dinner, whadya say?" She said and hurried to catch up to the man.

"Well if you're sure then why not. I'm not going to say no to food." Natsu said and grinned at the blue cat that was walking next to him.

Over the next hour Lucy was going from gratitude to fatigue to horror as she saw the amount of food the two could shove down their throats. She had tried to eat but was quickly put off by the amount of food that was steadily being thrown out of their mouths as they chewed. "_Good thing I saved my money_." She thought and felt a slight shiver go down her spine as she wipe a piece of ham from her cheek. Lucy started a conversation in an attempt to slow down the two and possibly be spared from being showered with spit and pieces of food. Lucy told them about mages and mageguilds along with her wish to join Fairy Tail, the most famous mage guild in all of Fiore and Natsu told why he wanted to see the sleaze of a man, gaining a unbelieving look from the blond woman. After they finished Lucy said her goodbyes, hurriedly as she was embarrassed by the near shouted thank you's from the two and left from the restaurant with a new Sorcerer Weekly in her hands to see what was new in the magic world.

***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***

"What am I doing here?" Lucy asked herself and tried to smile to the blue haired man sitting in front of him. She had been startled by the man when she had sat down in a park bench to read her magazine, only to be ambushed by his sudden appearance from the bushes. When Lucy had confronted him about the usage of Charm magic, the man had only asked if she wanted to join Fairy Tail as he was in a position to give a good word to the guild master. The only conditions were to join the party at the ship and not to talk about the Charm magic as it was against the law to use it. She had been quick to agree as it was her fondest wish to join Fairy Tail and now, here she was at the ship, regretting her decision.

"Now my sweet. Open your mouth and let these droplets of ectasy seduce your taste buds." The man said with a sickly sweet voice, the glamorous grin plastered to his face. Lucy sighed inside her head and opened her mouth to wait for the few drops to enter it. As the first one was just about to enter her mouth she slapped them to the side with an angry glare.

"Do you think I'm stupid? Trying to use Sleep magic now that Charm didn't work?" She said angrily and rose from the bench she had been sitting on.

"That's it. No matter how you are from Fairy Tail, you are despicable and if this is the way Fairy Tail does things, I want no part of it. I'm leaving and you can be sure I will report this to the authorities." She said hotly and made her way to the cabin door.

The door slammed open before she got to it and she was shocked to see the other women from the party being slung over the crew members.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that, celestial mage-chan. I am bound to get a good price from you at Bosco, if I don't decide to break you in myself." The man said and gave Lucy a look that made her want to vomit. Before Lucy could say or do anything, the man was next to him with his keys in hand.

"Give me my Keys you bastard!" She shouted and made lunge towards the man. Salamander sidestepped and with a flick of his wrist, threw the keys out of the window.

"NOOOOO! MY KEYYYS!" Lucy shouted as she ran to the window.

"You're gonna pay for that." She said and turned around with a glare. Salamander smirked and raised his hand.

"Prominence Whi.." Was all he got out his mouth before he was slammed to the floor with a loud bang and falling pieces of wood. Lucy looked, wide-eyed, about the sudden hole in the roof.

"Lucy! What are you doing here?" Happy said and looked Lucy with a surprised look.

"Happy!? With WINGS?!" Lucy shouted at the sight of the blue

cat with white angelic wings behind him.

"AYE! And Natsu too." Happy said and dropped Natsu on the ship.

"I guess these are yours?" Natsu said and tossed a key ring to Lucy.

"MY KEYS!" Lucy cried and caught them in the air. She startled when she felt someone grab her and lift her in the air.

"Stop struggling Lucy, you're gonna fall." Happy said and tried to get a better grip. Lucy stopped and felt slightly relieved that it had been Happy to grab him and not one of those would be rapists.

"What about Natsu?" Lucy said and looked back at the ship.

"I can only carry one and Natsu's going to be fine. There is one problem though." Happy said, panting at the exertion of having to fly to the ship and back. With extra luggage.

"What's that?" Lucy asked, trying to think what was wrong now."

"Out of magic." Happy said with a neutral tone as his magic ran out and they both fell to the sea, Lucy screaming curses at the stupid blue cat all the way down.

"Stupid cat, you could have told me sooner!" Lucy shouted and smacked the blue cat on the top of his head.

"OWW! You're mean!" Happy said and rubbed his head.

***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***

On the ship, Natsu was trying not to vomit and fight at the same time and that was not going too well. He had beaten the weaker men but he was really starting to feel the rocking of the ship now and with the blue haired man slinging his flame whip everywhere, it was really starting to wear Natsu out.

"Blaargh!" Natsu vomited at the floor, right in front of the few people who were still standing. The men were taking steps backwards, trying to avoid to have their feet covered in vomit and started to go to the backside of this pink haired idiot who had attacked them. They were just about to hit him when the ship suddenly started spinning, which made Natsu vomit more and they were all thrown from their footings as the ship crashed to the beach, going a few hundred meters inland. "_The fuck was that?_" Natsu thought and climbed out of the shattered pieces of what used to be the hull of the ship. He climbed his way on top of the ship and took a look at the men gathered down below, feeling his rage surge to new heights as his nausea was going down.

"So you are Salamander of Fairy Tail hmm?" Natsu growled at the leader of the men, kicking off the few men who had tried to climb on top to attack him.

"Yes, and you boy are pot roast." Salamander said with a sneer.

"Prominence Typhoon!" He shouted and a sudden purple flamed surrounded the pink haired man.

"NATSUU!" Lucy screamed at the beach as she saw Natsu being engulfed with flames.

"Don't worry Lucy, fire doesn't affect Natsu." Happy said, munching a fish he had caught from the tidal wave that washed them into the shore.

"What do you mean?" Lucy asked, worry laced in her voice.

"You'll see." Happy said without a care and munched down the fish. Lucy was about to ask again when she heard munching. Not from the blue cat but from inside the purple inferno that was still blazing on top of the ship.

"Awful. These flames taste like shit. What did you do to these." Natsu said and swallowed the last of the flames.

"Well no matter. Thanks for the meal, now I'm all fired up." He continued with a smirk as he saw the terrified faces of the men.

"What are you? A monster?" One of the men whispered.

"No, I'm Natsu Dragneel. The fire dragon slayer." Natsu said and ignited his fist as he rushed towards the group of men.

"A fire dragon slayer?" Lucy said to herself, still being amazed that the flames had done nothing to the man.

"Aye, he takes the characteristics of dragons. Scales of dragons to counter any attack. Claws of dragons to go through any armor. And lastly, well, see for yourself." Happy said as they watched Natsu mow down the slavers and finally attacking the leader himself with a blazing roar. Lucy winced slightly as she could feel the heat from where she was standing and feeling queasy from the smell of roasted meat she knew was coming from the slavers. Lucy was at awe of the destruction Natsu had done and was still in shock when Natsu came to them.

"Shit, we gotta leave now!" Natsu said with a hurried tone as his heard clanking of armor and shouts. Lucy didn't have time to react before Natsu grabbed her hand and started running.

"Wait, what. Where are we going?" Came Lucy's ragged words as she was panting from the sudden running.

"You wanted to join Fairy Tail right?" Natsu said with a slight grin and getting a nod from Lucy who was trying to slow down her breathing.

"That's where were going, you coming?" He asked the blonde woman, not slowing down even for a minute.

"Okay!" Lucy said, unable to keep the grin of her face as she was finally heading towards her dream.

***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***

"When is daddy going to be back Aunt Mira?" A girl of six with white hair and onyx black eyes said, looking at the guild hall doors.

"I don't now sweetie but I bet it wont be long. You'll just be a good girl and do your homework. You don't want Erza to be mad at you, right?" The white-haired barmaid said and smiled gently to the girl.

"No Aunt Mira. Erza's scary when she's mad." The girl replied in a serious tone and turned her focus to the books in front of her. Mira sighed and ruffled the little girls hair before she went to give the ordered beers and barrel to their orderers.

"How's Lily doing?" A black-haired man asked and took the handle of the beer stein he was offered.

"Missing her dad Gray, what do you expect." She said with mock annoyance, knowing full well that everyone knew that Lily was missing her father and that was not what Gray had asked. Well, not only that. The man nodded and took sip of his beer before going back to his own thoughts.

"I'M BACK!" There was a sudden shout from the door as the doors slammed open, startling everyone inside the guild.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR FLAME-BRAIN?" Gray shouted and tried to wipe the beer off.

"QUIT WHINING POPSICLE!" Was the return shout and just as Gray was starting to rise from his chair, a voice came from behind him.

"Gray, clothes." Gray looked down and swore loudly, earning a hard slap to the back of his head.

"You do not swear in front of Lily, it's not manly!" A white-haired man with a scar across the right side of his face said with fury.

"Yea, freezer! If Lily has learned curse words from you, I'm gonna melt your ass." Natsu said and walked inside the guild, feeling happy that he was finally home.

"DADDY! YOUR BACK!" The little girl shouted from the bar as everyone deadpanned from the reaction. Everyone murmured that it was Natsu's daughter all right. The whole guild could crumble and she wouldn't know.

"Yea Lily. Daddy's back. How's my little girl?" Natsu said gently and picked the girl up. Lucy was slightly startled at the sudden shouting that had happened and even more so at the appearance of Natsu's daughter. They had talked on their way to the guild but Natsu had said nothing about a daughter or wife/girlfriend, not to mention that the carefree attitude that Natsu had had over their trip was not one you would usually find on a parent.

"You have a daughter?" She asked to confirm that she had indeed understood right the whole situation.

"Yea, this is Lily. My little girl." Natsu said with a smile and brought Lily over the blonde woman.

"Why? Hard to believe?" He continued and tickled the girl in his arms, causing the girl to break down in giggles.

"A little." Lucy said under her breath before shaking her head.

"I mean no, of course not. Hey Lily, my name is Lucy." She said and bowed closer to the small girl.

"Hello Lucy." Lily said and draped her arms over Natsu's neck.

"Welcome back Natsu. How did it go?" Mira asked from the bar, where she was wiping stains from the wooden counter that was shining from the lack of stains.

"A bust Mira. Thanks for watching over Lily." Natsu said with a subdued voice, not entirely hiding the hurt of not finding his father this time either.

"Hey Lucy. Talk to Mira about the joining." Natsu said and walked towards the bar when he spotted few books open on top of it. Lucy nodded and went to talk to Mira. After a few minutes Lucy was gawking over the new and pink Fairy Tail tattoo on the back of his hand, clearly happy about being a part of the guild.

"You should stop running around the country on these wild goose chases Dragon Dung. You're leaving Lily all alone." Gray said from his table, getting immediate action from Natsu. He gave Lily to Mira, who was also looking at Gray with annoyance, and walked over to his table.

"What was that Ice Princess?" He asked with a threatening growl.

"You heard me Matchbox. Stop leaving Lily alone." Gray said and stood from his chair.

"I'm not leaving Lily alone." Natsu said as a hard glint came over his eyes.

"Yes, you are jackass." Gray said with an equally low tone. Without warning, Natsu ignited his hands and gave Gray an uppercut that shot him out of his shoes. Gray lifted himself from the wreckage of chairs and tables and ran to Natsu. After a minute there was an all out brawl going on in the guild that left Lucy watching the destruction with a terrified face.

"Don't you think we should stop them?" Lucy asked the barmaid who was busy teaching Lily how to do the problem in her book.

"No, this is their way of bonding and unwinding. It'll stop soon." She answered and poured a glass to Lily, giggling at the frown on her forehead as she was thinking hard. Lucy turned to see what Mira was giggling about and couldn't help but join when she saw Lily scratching her way in a very Natsu like motion.

***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***

"EVERYBODY STOP THIS INSTANT!" There was a new shout and Lucy dropped from her chair when she saw a huge black figure reaching to the ceiling. Every one stopped on their places and stared at the figure.

"Welcome back Master. How was your trip?" Mira said from the bar and took out the bottle that was preserved to the third guild master of Fairy Tail, Makarov.

"M-master?" Lucy asked, unable to take her eyes off from the huge figure standing in the doorway. Her eyes widened more when said figure suddenly shrinked to size of Lily and it was a old man.

"Yes, he is Makarov. Fairy Tail's third master." Mira said and gave the bottle to the Master before he jumped to the upper floor of the guild. He took a swig from the bottle and started waving a stack of papers. He then proceeded to chew off the members of Fairy Tail about the amount of complaints he had gotten from the Magic Council on destruction of property and the like, which made Lucy shudder as she remembered the destruction of the harbor of Harugeon. She dropped in surprise from her chair again when the master then set the stack of complaints on fire, threw them to Natsu and told them that they didn't need to worry about the complaints and or the destruction, so long as they were doing the good work they had been doing and strived to improve themselves. The whole guild grinned at that and continued on their drinking and chatting.

The master jumped down from the banister he had been standing and came to sit in the bar, next to Lily who he was very fond of. The new generation of Fairy Tail was very loved by the guild master and he made no attempt to hide it.

"So you must be new then?" Makarov said to Lucy and drank the rest of the bottle.

"Yes, I just joined Master. Natsu brought me in." Lucy said, feeling a bit nervous as the man was the Master of Fairy Tail for magics sakes. And here he was talking to her, someone who had been a member for almost fifteen minutes. Makarov lifted his brow at the news of Natsu bringing in someone new and looked at Mira who only nodded. Even she had been surprised that Natsu had brought someone over and both her and Makarov was hoping that this would be a sign of him coming out of his shell more. Not that he had been very unsocial but maybe this would mean that he had started to move on.

"Come on Lily. Time to go home." Natsu said and lifted Lily from the counter and gave her a kiss on top of her head.

"Okay daddy. I didn't get to finish everything." Lily said and wrapped her hands around her father's neck.

"Don't worry. I'll tell Erza it's my fault." Natsu said and started to walk out of the guild with Happy flying behind them. Lucy watched them leave with a smile before she noticed that no-one else was walking with Natsu. She turned towards Mira and Makarov with a quizzical look.

"Wheres Natsu's wife or girlfriend?" Lucy asked as she was baffled at why Natsu went home alone, sort of speaking. Makarov and Mira both had very serious faces when they answered.

"She died a while back. And you shouldn't talk about her to Natsu. Not yet anyway." Makarov said while giving a pack of tissues to Mira who was now crying silently.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know." Lucy said worriedly and looked down in shame.

"Don't worry about it, how could've you known? It's not like Natsu talks about Lisanna." Mira said between sobs as the memory was hard on her too.

"We hope that this means he's coming out of his shell." Makarov said and took another bottle of beer.

"Shell?" Lucy asked and was confused.

"He didn't seem like he shut himself out when we walked here." Lucy said, looking for an explanation. She was a writer and these kinds of things made good material, not that she would use this without Natsu's permission as these kinds of things were very personal but Lucy couldn't help her curiosity.

"Well, he's not that unsocial anymore but you're the first he had brought in years. The last ones were Erza, Mira, Eflman, the white haired man over there, Lisanna and Betty. We were all brought in around the same time." Mira said, finally being calm even if there was still a slight puffiness around her eyes. Lucy was surprised at this, and she was also surprised at just how many surprises she had had in one day. It was starting to be overwhelming and Mira offered her to stay over at their house as Lucy was new and didn't have anywhere to stay. Lucy gladly accepted and Mira waved Elfman to come over and show Lucy where she was staying until she found her own place.

* * *

Now I know at least half of you who are going to read this are going to shout at me for not updating the stories I already started but bare with me. The reason is that I'm stuck. And the best way to get unstuck is to stop trying to force it and do something else for a bit, so that's why I did this.

There are going to be more than a few changes for the canon of Fairy Tail and hopefully that won't bother you all that much. And before we go any deeper, this is me trying to be upbeat and cheery like Fairy Tail is supposed to be. Please tell me how I did. And if you have any questions about this fic, or suggestions, you can PM me or ask in the reviews. And I would really much like if you would review, either this or my other stories and you can give suggestions and ideas for the other two of my unfinished stories. Who knows, maybe I can get a chapter out of them. :D I know this is short but this is supposed to be an sort of introduction to this story. There are going to be pairings in this, I just don't know what pairs I will be doing. I do know that I will NOT pair Natsu with Lucy and/or Lisanna. Those two are out but otherwise I'm open to suggestion. Well I hope you like this. See you all soon.

-DraXXter-


	2. Chapter 2

I don't own Fairy Tail, all rights belong to their respective creators.

* * *

I'm giving a shot on adding the extra explanations here instead at the end of the chapter. Good idea or bad, what do you guys think? Bigger questions that I get, for the back story etc, I will explain in the start of the chapter. Like I have now, with this wall of text. Sorry for making this so long.

Now I know there are a few things that might puzzle you in this chapter and if you want me to answer them faster than in the next chapter's review part, send me a message and I'll try to answer without giving out too much info about happenings in the story. There is a lot of conversation in this and I hope it's readable. If not, give an example on how I could improve on the matter. Yeah, long, sorry.

Before you ask about the missing Happy, the reason he is missing is because I very often forget to write about him and he likes to be with Lily as they are the best of friends.

Oh and Natsu is far older in this than he is in Canon. He was an adult when he joined the guild and he brought the others to it when he picked them up on his travels. His and Lisanna's relationship is kind of like it was for Hohenheim and Trisha in FMA. It will be explained in more detail as the story progresses. And I am doing time skipping in this. I don't see the reason on writing about every day of the guild if there is nothing going on, although I will probably add some Lily centered stuff in the, should I say, off periods. IE between Lullaby and Galuna island. I know I tend to explain too much, can't help it.

* * *

"Speaking."

"_Thoughts"_

Natsu was rolling around in his bed, his old nightmares haunting him again. Sweat was rolling from his brow and small whimpers were coming out of his mouth. He was suddenly awakened by a scream and his first thoughts went to his daughter.

"LILYY!" He shouted as he ran to the room that he had built for the little girl. Natsu's fear rose when he heard crackling sound and a wail of pain from behind the door. He slammed the door open and the sight stopped him dead on his tracks as his brains desperately tried to make sense of the scene.

Lily was kneeling in the floor, tear streaks was seen on her cheeks and she tried to cradle and wave one of her arm that was now on fire. Natsu immediately tried to inhale the fire from her hand but nothing happened. Then he saw that Lily's arm was not her regular arm but a paw of a tiger. Claws had replaced fingers and he could see the blood on the tips of the claw. Natsu cringed as he remembered how his first transformation had hurt.

"It's okay Lily. Daddy's here and I'm going to help you." Natsu said gently and picked up his daughter. Lily tried to keep her hand away from Natsu but he grasped the burning paw with his own hand.

"I-i-it hurts daddy. Make it stop!" Lily whimpered to her father and tried to shake the fire away.

"I know honey. It's okay. It will stop soon." Natsu said with a calming tone and ignited his own hand, hoping that his flame could somehow ease the pain. Lily flinched at the heat she felt but when the sharp pain from her hand turned to a dull throbbing, she started to calm down a bit.

"Daddy, what's happening to me?" She asked with a whisper, feeling more afraid now that she could see that her hand was not how it was supposed to be.

"Your magic awakened Lily, there is nothing to be afraid of." Natsu said with a small smile, encouraging his daughter more.

"HAPPY! GET MIRA HERE." He shouted from the door before he kept walking in a small circle inside Lily's room. He did everything he could in calming his daughter down but every time the flames in Lily's hand grew, she started crying again in fear and pain.

Happy had heard the wail of pain and when Natsu shouted, he bolted through the window like a blue lightning. Happy flew faster than he had ever flewn before and when he saw the house where the Strauss siblings lived, he felt so relieved that he forgot to slow down. He slammed to the window of the top floor with a loud bang and fell to the ground.

"_What was that?_" Mirajane thought and rose from her bed, the loud bang noise from her window had woken her up and the loud roaring coming from Elfman's room helped.

"Who's attacking. SISTER! ARE YOU ALRIGHT!?" He shouted and tried to get his feet from the tangles his blanket had gone into.

"I'm fine Elfman. Something just hit my window, you can go back to sleep." Mira said back and because she had not seen anything, she went back to bed. Mirajane just got herself comfortable on the bed when there was a knocking sound coming from the window. "_What is it now?_" She thought in irritation and walked to the window. When she saw Happy, she felt fear. "_Something must've happened at Natsu's_" Was her thoughts when she opened the window. Happy flew in and started shouting in a hurry before Mirajane caught him in her arms.

"Happy. Calm down and tell me what's wrong. I can't make anything out of your speech right now." She said calmly. Happy looked at the serious eyes of Mirajane and took a deep breath.

"It's Lily, something happened and Natsu told me to get you." Happy said and curled his tail around Mira before bolting out the window.

"Happy, I need clothes!" She screamed but Happy was not listening. His sister needed Mirajane and his father had told to get Mira so that was exactly what he was doing. When they got the house that Happy lived with Natsu and Lily, he dropped Mira by the door and flew straight in.

"God damn it Happy." Mira grumbled and ran inside the house, her worry for Lily and Natsu greatly overweighting her worry about her current state of dress. She was shocked when she reached Lily's room.

Natsu was cradling Lily who had both of her arms now in flames and in the shape of tigers paws. He noticed Mira on the door, with a shocked look on her face.

"Hey Mira. You know more about take over than me. please help Lily." Natsu pleaded, trying not to sound scared at the pain his daughter was going through. Mira only nodded as she couldn't rely that her voice could hold.

"Natsu, out." Was the only thing she said after she had taken Lily into her arms and started to calm the child down.

Mira assured the child that she was not abnormal, she was not going stay that way and the pain would soon go away. Then Mira showed the little girl how her hands could change in different monster and animal's paws. After Lily had calmed down a bit, she told her how her mother used the same magic than Lily and that's why her hand's had changed to one of a tiger. Mira made a small joke about how the fire in her hands was all her daddy's fault. Natsu smiled gently at that remark from outside the room. "_You have no idea Mira._" He thought to himself and went to the kitchen.

Natsu filled one glass with water and one with juice as he waited for Mira to come out of the room and tell him how it went. He didn't need to wait long.

"She's sleeping with Happy now. She was very afraid of herself." Mira said and walked to Natsu.

"Thank you Mira. I really appreciate this." Natsu said and gave the juice to the white haired woman.

"Nothing to thank me for Natsu, of course I help. She is my niece." She responded and took a sip from the glass.

"It started tonight Mira, if that's what you're wondering."

"No, it was not that. I know you would've called me sooner if needed. The thing that puzzles me is that, that wasn't normal Take Over magic. It shouldn't hurt." Mirajane said and looked at Natsu.

"I wouldn't know Mira. I don't know about Take Over other than what...she told me." Natsu said and kept staring at his glass. Mirajane sighed and walked over to Natsu, pulling him into a hug. Natsu stiffened lightly at the sudden contact. He wasn't used to being hugged by others than Lily after his loss of his significant other.

"I know and I will help you get through this. Were family right? I don't leave my family in trouble anymore than you do. But."

"I sensed a But. This is going to be a huge But isn't it?"

"In a sense. You need to talk about Master about this. He could know what's going on. For all we know, that hurt because you're a dragon slayer and gave Lily the ability to use Fire." Natsu winced at the words, feeling discomfort of thinking how he was responsible of hurting Lily, his own daughter. Mira felt him squirm and responded firmly.

"Stop it Natsu. This is not your fault. I'm not blaming you and I don't think Lily is either."

"So, to the Master then?" Natsu asked and pulled away from the hug, taking the glass from Mira's hand and walking to the sink.

"Yes, the Master. And I'm staying for the rest of the night." Natsu's eyes widened. He hadn't had anybody stay over since Lisanna died.

"Just incase something happens. I'm not going to crawl over to your bed." Mirajane said with annoyance. "_As much as I would want to._" Was her silent thought.

"I wasn't thinking that Mira and you know it. It's just nobody's been here. For a long time."

"I know, and that still doesn't change the fact that I'm staying for the rest of the night. It's not like I can go home wearing this." Mirajane said flatly and tugged her nightgown slightly. That was the time when Natsu actually paid attention on what Mira was wearing.

It was a white nightgown that hugged Mira's body in all the right places and was loose and comfortable at the same time. The Natsu looked down and felt heat rising to his cheeks. He was standing in boxer shorts, ragged boxer shorts. Natsu agreed quickly and pushed Mira to his bedroom saying that he sleeps on the couch and no arguments. Mirajane tried to protest but Natsu didn't stop to listen. "_How embarrassing was that._" Natsu thought to himself as he made the couch to be a better place to sleep.

***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***

It was the next day when Mirajane and Natsu walked to the guild, Mira having Lily in her arms and telling her how the Take Over magic worked in general. Natsu opened the door and walked inside, spotting Romeo in the corner coloring in a book.

"Lily, why don't you go play with Romeo when your aunt and me go talk to gramps?" Natsu asked playfully from his daughter. Mira had told him to keep his tone lighter than usual as the shock of waking up with flaming paws as hands was bound to be a big one.

"Okay daddy. Will you take long?" Lily asked and hopped down from Mirajane's hands.

"No, we'll be back before you know it." Natsu said with a smile and ruffled Lily's hair, getting a giggle out of the little girl.

"you're really close with her, huh?" Natsu heard a young woman's voice from behind him and as he turned his head, he saw Lucy smiling at the sight of Lily.

"Yeah, she's my treasure. And good morning Luce." Natsu said and walked towards the bar.

"CANA! I SAID NOT TO TOUCH THE LIQUOR WHEN I'M NOT AROUND!" Mirajane shouted when she spotted the brown patch of hair bobbing behind the counter. Natsu chuckled at the sight of Cana trying to sneak out from behind the bar with an angry Mirajane staring her down. Natsu nodded to the guilders who returned the gesture with a wave of their hand before going back to their conversations.

Natsu climbed the stairs that lead to the office of Master Makarov and waited Mira to join him before he knocked to the door.

"Come in." Came a gruffy voice and they opened the door. The voice of the master came from behind a mountain of paperwork and they could hear him grumbling about the amount of signing he had to do. Natsu cleared his throat to inform the Master that they had entered the room while Mira closed the door with a silent click. Makarov lifted his head from the paperwork and parted the stacks of paper on his desk.

"Mira, Natsu. How can I help you?" He asked and took a more comfortable position on his chair.

"Lily's magic awoke last night." Natsu said and waited for Mira to continue talking. Makarov lifted his brow at this. He wondered why they would want a meeting with him to discuss the awakening of magic, it was not unusual that it awoke in mage's children around the age of six or seven. And as Lily was now six, almost seven, it was right in the marginal of happening. Mira cleared her throat and started the explanation.

"She had tiger paws that was covered in fire. That however is not the problem. The problem is that the transformation hurted her and we don't know why. Take Over magic doesn't hurt and I can bet that the paws came because of Lisanna. My first guess is that it was the fire that hurt her but I can't say for sure since Natsu is a fire dragon slayer and that should give Lily some resistance to heat." Mira said, trying to explain the whole ordeal without giving Makarov time to ask questions in the middle.

"So she used Take Over and Dragon slayer magic at the same time?" Makarov asked in confirmation.

"That's what it seemed but we can't be sure." Natsu said and sat down on one of the chairs that was circling the room. He was sure that this will take longer than he thought. Makarov rubbed his chin while thinking about what had been said. "_Most likely it was because of Natsu that the transformation hurt. It had hurted for him so it would make sense that it would hurt for Lily too._" He thought to himself as he pondered the situation. Makarov was startled out of his thoughts by Mira who had stepped in front of him.

"What?" He asked the angry looking woman.

"I asked do you know what it could be and how we can help in the matter." Mira huffed in annoyance. She didn't like when the master ignored her talking.

"Honestly I don't know. But you said that it WAS Take Over, right?" Makarov asked Mira.

"Yes, I can't see what else it could've been. I mean, I can differentiate between tiger paws and dragon claws and I highly doubt that even if Natsu can take on characteristics of dragons, Lily would not without learning it before hand."

"I suppose not. If it is just Take Over magic then you should be the one to teach her about it don't you think? You should be able to teach her, so even if it did hurt, it wouldn't hurt nearly as much" Makarov said to Mira. She blinked at the question and thought about it.

"Before you even consider Elfman, try to picture him teaching a little girl how it is manly to use Take Over." Makarov said, trying to keep a neutral voice. The slight chuckling that came over from Natsu was not helping in the matter. Mira paled slightly at the image of Elfman teaching sweet little Lily on how to be a man. There was no way in hell she would let Elfman corrupt the poor girl. So she agreed hastily to the suggestion, not that she had anything against it. Mira always regretted no being able to spend as much time with Lily as she would have wanted. Mira was the barmaid afterall and that meant that she would have to service customers and Lily could not always help her do her job. When the guilders got drunk, they would start to brawl and that was not a good time to be walking amongst them.

"Good. Now Natsu. Is it alright if Lily learns Take Over from Mira?" Makarov asked as he thought it would be better to get confirmation from the parent in question.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be? I mean, I can't think of anyone else who could be better than Mira." Natsu said with a small smile.

"It's settled then. Now get out of here, I still got a ton of complaints to go through." Makarov said and waved them out of the office.

Natsu and Mira walked back down to the bar, Natsu waving at Lily who was still coloring with Romeo. Mira went back behind the counter and Natsu sat on a bar stool on the other side. Cana walked to the bar only to be turned around by the deathglare that Mira gave her.

"You're not drinking here for a week Cana. That's your punishment." Mira said and wiped the counter furiously. Cana whined at the punishment and dragged her feet when she walked out of the guild. Both Natsu and Mira turned their heads when they heard a whine coming from the request board. It was Lucy, trying to decide on a job.

"You should go on a mission Natsu. You need the money for Lily." Mira said to Natsu who nodded.

"Yeah, I'll take Lucy along to show her how things are done in Fairy Tail." Natsu said and went to talk to Lucy.

***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***

Lucy was reading the posts in the request board, feeling a little overwhelmed by the sheer amount and variety of the requests. There were astrology requests, someone wanted help to plan a wedding. There was even a request to shut down a volcano, which made Lucy sweatdrop at the image of a mage pouring ice cubes inside.

"Can't decide on a job?" She heard a voice behind her and saw that it was Natsu when she turned her head.

"Yeah, there are so many and they are all different. It's a little overwhelming." Lucy agreed. Natsu pulled one of the requests on top of the board and showed it to Lucy.

"How about this one? This shouldn't be too difficult." Natsu gave the request slip to the blonde woman. Lucy read through it, being more excited as further down she read. Only the part about a pervert searching for a blonde maid made her cringe.

"Don't tell me, you asked because of the blond maid thing?" Lucy waved the slip in front of Natsu. The amazed look on Natsu's face made her show the piece of writing on the slip.

"No Lucy, I suggested it because it's close and it pays well." Natsu replied and told Lucy that it was near their guild and getting 200.000 jewels for burning a book was quite a good payment. Lucy's eyes started to shine as she thought all of the things she could buy with that much money. Only when Natsu said that he would like to join her as he needed money for Lily, her face darkened a bit but she agreed to it.

Lucy could guess that it took money to raise a child and maybe she could get to know more about Natsu and how he could raise a child with such a carefree attitude. Maybe she could even ask him about the mother of the child. So they went to Mira, who recorded the request being accepted and sent them off, with a crying Lily on her arms. Natsu gave a warming smile to Lily and promised that they would return soon and until they did, she should listen to Mira. Lily got a little excited when Mira told her that she would be learning her mother's magic from Mira.

***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***

As Lucy and Natsu was on their way to Everlue, Mira started her unofficial training of Lily on the aspects of Take Over.

"Now Lily, you see this cute bunny here?" Mira asked the little girl as she plotted a small brown rabbit on the pen in the backyard of the guild.

"Yes Aunt Mira. She's a very cute bunny." Lily said, being all serious as she was taking training seriously. Her father had always said that training is training and there is no room to play when training.

"Good. Now, I need you to whack it on the head." Mira said and opened the pen so the little girl could go inside.

"Wha-what? But I don't wanna hurt the cute bunny." Lily said as tears started to appear on her eyes.

"This is training Lily dear. You need to even if you don't want to." Mira said gently, almost swayed on stopping the basics as she looked in the big eyes full of tears. "_Aww she's so cute!_" She thought to herself.

"O-okay" Lily sniffled and wiped her eyes. She took a step towards the rabbit and stopped as it turned it's eyes to her. Lily lifted her small hand that trembled as she thought that she had to hit the rabbit on the head and the look it gave her wasn't making things easier. "_She's as gentle as Lisanna was._" Mira smiled as she remembered when Lisanna was put to this kind of training at first. Mira looked on as Lily took another step towards the rabbit and with closed eyes, slammed her fist on the head of the rabbit.

The bunny staggered and before Lily could sigh in relief that it was alright, Mira told her to whack it again. This time the tears fell from her eyes as she brought her fist to another strike and knocked the rabbit out.

"Now sweetheart, put your hand on top of the little bunny and repeat after me. Take Over: Rabbit Soul." Mira said and walked over to the little girl. Lily placed her hand on top of the rabbit and petted it at the same time as she whispered the words with a trembling voice. She really didn't like hitting the rabbit and she thought it was cruel.

"Now Lily, you will assimilate the soul of that bunny to yourself. Don't worry, nothing bad will happen to the bunny. You just get the ability to use it's powers." Mira said and waited for the glow to end that indicated that the Take Over had been succesful. Mira was going to leave with Lily to train on how to use the actual soul in take over that she just got but receded when Lily said that she wanted to wait that the bunny was okay. After they set free the rabbit that was now disoriented but not otherwise hurt, they started to train Lily on how to call out the soul of the rabbit and then get used to moving around with it. She was a quick learner and quite powerful for a six year old.

***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***

Lucy was walking towards the train station after they had returned the book in question for it's rightful owner as it had turned out to be a long letter from father to son. It had been a surprise to all of them when that had been found out and after that Natsu had been against on burning the book as he thought that the last words of a father should not be burnt, instead it should be delivered to the one they were ment. Lucy had suspected that there was something personal as there had been sorrow in Natsu's eyes when he had said that and then proceeded to pound Duke Everlue on the sewer wall they had been fighting in.

"Natsu, I wanted to ask about something." Lucy said and took a look at the man walking next to her.

"Sure thing. What'cha want to know Luce?" Natsu answered happily as he didn't want to bother Lucy about his financial problems.

"I was just wondering about Lily's mother." Lucy began but stopped quickly when Natsu gave her a dark glare.

"Not talking about it Lucy. Don't even bother." He said and started to walk faster.

"I understand but I was just thinking that you remembered something about last words and.."

"What did you not understand about not wanting to talk about it?" Nastu said with a growl and stared the girl hard. Lucy gulped at the sight.

"O-okay, sorry. I was just worried that there was something wrong." Lucy said quietly. She hadn't been a part of Fairy Tail for long but already felt more at home here than she had in her actual home and the people reminded her about the servants that used to be like family to her. It was easy to get familiar with Natsu and she had quickly counted him as one of her friends and it had bothered her that Natsu was like that and there was nothing she could do about it.

"No, I'm sorry." Natsu sighed as he realized that of course she would ask him about things. She didn't know as nobody told her as they respected his wishes.

"I haven't talked to anyone about it Lucy and I hardly think it would be fair to talk to you about it first." Natsu said and continued walking. Lucy slightly wondered at the not fair statement and thought that Mira would know something about it. She started walking again and was just about to shout for Natsu to wait, when she heard running coming from behind her. Turning her head, she saw a petite woman with pink hair and a maid outfit running towards her. "_What the hell?_" She thought to herself and shrugged her shoulders, deciding that it had nothing to do with her.

"Mistress, wait" The pink haired woman said and grabbed Lucy's shoulder, eliciting a small yelp from the woman. Lucy turned and stared at the pink haired woman.

"What was that for? I got really startled you know?" Lucy said and tried to slow her heart beating. She really wasn't expecting anyone to suddenly grab her like that.

"Luce, what's wrong?" Natsu said as he came running. He had heard the yelp from Lucy and thought that one of the servants had come to get revenge for her/his master.

"This woman just grabbed me Natsu, don't know anything else yet." Lucy said and took a better look at the woman.

"I'm Virgo, Mistress. I came to bring you my key Mistress." The woman said with a flat tone.

"Wait what?" Lucy said, getting more confused by the second.

"You're a celestial spirit?" She tried to confirm as the words started to make sense.

"Yes Mistress. My contract with the Duke was cancelled when he was caught for committing crimes. I wanted you to take my key Mistress." Virgo continued, offering a golden key to Lucy.

"Didn't know you liked bondage Luce. You better not give Lily any influences" Natsu said while pointing the broken chains on Virgo.

"WHAT? I don't! Not that there is anything wrong with it but I don't do that kind of stuff." Lucy said, getting flustered at the idea of being bound to chains. Natsu shaked his head and continued to point at the chains.

"Then what's this Luce?" He said and took one of the chains in his hand to show it to the blond woman.

"Don't blame me for what the Duke forces his spirits do." Lucy said with more anger in her voice and slapped Natsu on the head. It took a few more very confusing sentences to get everyone to understand that Virgo was in chains by her choice and while she did like to get punished, sometimes, Lucy had nothing to do with her outfit sofar. And she was there to form a contract with Lucy, Virgo was even more eager for it when she saw Lucy slap Natsu few times more as he made some inappropriate jokes. After that was settled, they all made their way to the train station to start their trek back home and Virgo went to the spirit realm.

***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***

They came back to the guild with a bang and Natsu was quickly swamped by a pink fuzzball that shouted daddy to his ears. He took the fuzzball in his hands and took a better look at it.

"Lily?" Natsu asked in confirmation as the girl had greatly changed. She had pink fur all over herself and there were pink bunny ears on top of her head and her hands were somewhere between rabbit paws and human hands.

"It's me daddy! Aunt Mira taught me Take Over magic!" The girl squealed in joy.

"Aren't I cute daddy? I'm a bunny!" Lily said with pride in her voice and Natsu chuckled. He kissed Lily on the forehead and put her back down.

"You're always cute Lily. And now you're even more cute." Natsu said and rubbed one of Lily's ears.

"Welcome back you two." Mira said and brought Lily a glass of milk and a bun straight out of the oven.

"How was the mission?" She asked and smiled at Lily as she ate the bun with two bites. Lucy smiled at the sight too before answering.

"It went well, beside the fact that the Duke was a pervert." Lucy said and shuddered at the memory.

"Don't say anything more Lucy, there are children present." Mira said and hoped that Lily hadn't heard the word. She really didn't want to explain that.

"Dad." Lily said and drank her milk.

"Hmm, what is it honey?" Natsu said as he sat down, thinking about his past with small smile in his lips.

"What's a pervert?" She asked and looked at her dad, eyes wide in anticipation on learning what the new word meant. Natsu snapped the handles of the chair at the question before he could calm himself down.

"Wait here sweetie. You will know in a minute." He said gently to Lily and walked towards the two woman who were talking. Lily was looking very confused at her father and waited for be told the meaning of the new word.

"Mira, could you go and explain to Lily what pervert means, in the nicest way possible while I go and beat the shit out of Gray." Natsu said darkly, thinking that the icebox had taught his daughter something more than bad language. Mira paled slightly at the idea and pushed the responsibility to Lucy who was now green in her face.

"Why would Lucy be better choice Mira?" Natsu asked, being now slightly confused.

"Because, she was the one who taught the word to her." Mira said with a sweet smile that Lucy just knew wasn't meaning anything good.

"Lucy." Natsu said quietly, now turning his full attention to the younger woman.

"Y-yes Natsu." Lucy asked with a trembling voice. Natsu was now downright terrifying. His eyes had darkened and there was a hard glint in them and the slight increase in pressure told Lucy that he was building his magic up.

"Did you or did you not, teach my daughter the word pervert?" Natsu said and cracked his knuckles. Mira was getting worried as Natsu was being far more angry than she thought. She didn't remember Natsu being this protective but she guessed it came on stronger after Lisanna had been lost.

"N-no. She overheard me talking to Mira. Right Mira?" Lucy asked with a pleading voice towards the white haired woman. Before Mira could answer, Natsu sighed, releasing all his magic power he had been gathering as he knew it wasn't actually Lucy's fault. Mira would have stopped her if that had been the case.

"C'mon sweetie. Were going home since everyone here teaches you only bad things." He said to the small girl that he had grabbed and was now in his arms.

"Not true! Aunt Mira taught me take over and that's not a bad thing. She said it wasnt. I'm not a bad girl and neither is Aunt Mira!" Lily said with conviction in her voice that reminded Natsu of Lisanna. He smiled and kissed Lily in the cheek.

"I know honey. And neither are you or Mira bad girls. Both of you are simply adorable." Natsu said, unaware that Mira had overheard them and was now blushing madly. Mira went back to the bar, leaving behind a stunned Lucy as she didn't know why the woman was blushing. Natsu and Lily were walking towards their house to check that Happy wasn't doing any damage or trying to hide fish in Lily's room again.

* * *

So, here we are again with a new chapter for this one. I had a hard time stopping this before it turned into a pointless ramble and I am starting the main plot for this in the next chapter. What I would like to know is, is this too short for a chapter or is it too long? How long would you prefer as I could've written more but decided to post it on the next chapter. The magics are highlighted when they speak of the magic and in normal when they speak of the person IE Dragonslayer magic and Natsu being a dragonslayer. I have no clue how Take Over works in terms of practicing and just went with what I thought it worked from reading the manga and watching the anime. Hopefully you will forgive me :D

I would like to use this opportunity to give credit to these people, as they were a help for this chapter.

**treeofsakuras:** I was glad to get your assistance and hopefully I delivered what you wanted ^^

**SaveTheCheese:** You were also a great help and hope you like this chapter.

**Satsujinki Nanaya:** Thanks for the quick reply and hopefully your wishes were also granted in this chapter.

**Naturesshadow: **Your help were great, I used many of your ideas and twisted them to suit my needs. I have not used much of it in this chapter but will in the ones to come. Most of the questions you asked in the PM you sent, will be answered in due time but the age should become apparent in this one :D

You all had almost the same ideas and all of them was very much like each other :D I'm hoping that you continue to help me in order for making this a working piece of fiction. Thank you for reading and please review. That would be highly appreciated.

The two guests who reviewed. I don't know how to answer to you so I will just put it here:

I think it is apparent now that Lisanna is dead, as in permanent dead. No EdoLisanna or anything like that. It's not because I dislike the character, it just doesn't suit my plans for this fic. I know this will be hard to do but I do enjoy a challenge and I hope that I will be told if I make a mistake. Flames are ignored but constructive criticism is always welcome.

-DraXXter-


	3. Chapter 3

I don't own Fairy Tail, all rights belong to their respective creators.

* * *

Okay, I've been notified that there might be things that are confusing to people so here is a list of changes I've done to canon:

1. Natsu is older in this than he is in canon, he looks to be around 30 but nobody knows the truth. (It will be revealed as the story progresses.)

2. Mirajane is 22, Elfman is 21 and if Lisanna were alive, she would be 23. Yes, she was the oldest and I did that because the story needed it. Sorry if this is a deal breaker to anyone. Also, Lisanna is dead. EdoLisanna is not as I got plans for her but still no NaLi. Or at least I'll try not to have NaLi but to be completely honest, anything can happen. Tell me if I should somehow integrate the age's in the story or if this is enough.

3. The fire did not hurt Lily, they think it did but it didn't and if you read carefully you will find this out.

4. Grammatical errors will occur as English is not my native language so this might make things confusing also, so please tell me when you spot something that seems to be out of whack.

Asking for help, my mind doesn't work like I want it to. Give me something other than daddy or dad for Lily to call Natsu. Father is too formal for a six-year-old. And every other idea I get is still unusable for a girl that age. IE Daddy-o, dada and stuff like that.

* * *

"Speaking."

"_Thoughts"_

"Absolutely not Mira, she's not ready." Natsu said to the white-haired barmaid and crumbled the paper she had given him. Natsu had thought that the day had started nicely, Lily had awoken without trouble and even ate her breakfast without a hitch. He should've known that it had been too easy of a start to a day.

"Oh, c'mon Natsu. We weren't that much older when we started doing missions." Mira said to Natsu with annoyance.

"Or is it that you don't trust me and my training?" She continued and gave Natsu one of her dark glares. Natsu gave Mira a flat stare.

"Those don't work on me Mira, you should know better than to try and intimidate people who are older than you." He stated and and started to smooth out the paperslip that Mira had given him as a peace offering. Mira hmph'ed and went to fill orders. "_Now, lets see what she is wanting to do._" Natsu thought and started to read the paper.

HELP! MAGES WANTED FOR EXTERMINATION! was in bold letters at the start of the slip. "_WHAT?! Extermination for my little girl?_" Natsu thought after he had read the headline of the request. He continued to read, hoping that it was a bad case of moles in a field or something.

Lacrima mine in Harrowstown is being over-run by monsters. Need quick help for removing said monsters. We are prepared to pay 100.000 jewels and a Lacrima lamp of choice. _"Lacrima lamp? What's with this ridiculous request?_" Natsu thought and scratched his head.

"What is it daddy?" Lily asked and climbed to a chair next to Natsu. Natsu continued to scracth his head and turned to look Lily in the eye.

"What? Did I do something bad?" Lily asked with a sorrowful voice. She was used to get that stare when she did something wrong but Lily couldn't remember doing anything, yet.

"No, I was just wondering if you would be ready to do a mission." Natsu answered and kept staring at Lily. The little girls eyes started to shine.

"Like you and mommy used to? Going to wonderful places and meeting new people?" She asked quickly, her head already in a fit of dreams.

"Not quite. Your aunt seems to think that you're ready for beating up monsters." Natsu said and sent a look to Mira, who raised an eyebrow. Mira quickly dried the beer stein she had in her hand and went to Natsu.

"You've reconsidered?" She asked the man. Natsu shaked his head before answering the eager mage.

"Not unless you can convince Lily to another bashing of living things." He answered and pointed Lily with his thumb. Lily eyes started to from tears when Natsu mentioned beating, remembering the rabbit she had clobbered.

"I-I don't want to hit anything anymore. It's mean!" She shouted to Mira, who chuckled at the little girl. "_Honestly, she's just like Lisanna was._" Mira took Lily into her arms and gave her a squeeze.

"This is different Lily, the monsters we need to beat are bad. They went to someones mine without permission and the owner of the mine needs help to get rid of them." Mira said while smiling to Lily.

"Really?They're bad and not cute?" She asked with a small voice. Natsu shaked his head at this. How is it that his daughter was fine with beatings if the recipient wasn't cute.

"No honey. They are not cute, I promise." Mira said and crossed her pinky finger with Lily's before setting her down on the floor.

"Okay. Then I will go with you Aunt Mira. If you need my help than I will help. Daddy always says that we need to help family." Lily said with a serious face that only looked cute on a little girl. Natsu nodded as he had predicted this, it was his fault for teaching the principles of Fairy Tail and in true Fairy Tail fashion, she didn't leave a family member hanging.

"You and your dad need to be ready in an hour Lily. Could you do me a favor and make sure that your dad is also ready?" Mira asked Lily and gave her a glass of juice. "_Where does she get those all the time?_" Natsu wondered to himself. Everytime Mira talked to the little girl, somehow she always was able to give her a glass of juice or milk.

***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***

After an hour, the father daughter duo was waiting the barmaid with growing impatience. Natsu glanced at the bar where Mira kept pouring drinks and at the same time trying to tell Cana that she was not to drink the bar empty while she was gone.

"When does Aunt Mira come daddy?" Lily asked and shifted her feet. Lily was like Natsu when it came to waiting, she didn't like it. Not one bit.

"Don't know Lily but I'm starting to think that never." Natsu said with a forced calm. His nerves weren't in the best of conditions right now as he was stressing about Lily's first mission.

"Alright. I'm ready!" Came a shout from inside the guild.

"Finally. Do you remember that it..was...you.. What are you wearing?" Natsu stumbled at his words. Mirajane had come from the guild wearing black pants that were split in the outside of the legs and had a sash like twine going upwards in a zigzag, that were hugging her legs. She also had a black tank top that had a skull biting into a bloody raven and on top of that a black jacket that had, for some odd reason, a pink rabbit over her left breast.

"My new mission outfit, I got it just yesterday. You didn't think I would go there with my dress now did you?" Mira asked and winked at Natsu. She rarely got to go on missions nowadays as she had made sure to stay in the guild just in case Natsu needed help with Lily.

"N-no. But I wasn't expecting this either..wait, yesterday?" Natsu asked. Mira nodded with eyes that shone innocence that was reflected from Lily's eyes. "_I got played. BY MY OWN DAUGHTER!_" Natsu shouted inside his head while to the rest of the world he simply sighed. Mira giggled at Natsu's reaction as she could guess why he sighed.

"What? You don't like it?" She asked the pink haired man and made a sorrowful look.

"It's not that. You look great, trust me. I just can't believe that I got played by my daughter!" Natsu said to Lily, not looking towards Mira. Mira blushed slightly at Natsu's comment. "_Dang it. I need to stop this. I can't blush with EVERY thing he says._" She scolded herself. Natsu tried to give a stern look to his daughter but couldn't as Lily hugged his feet with a smile wide across her face.

"What's the commotion guys?" Came a voice from the front gates of the guild. Mira waved at the owner of the voice, which turned out to be Lucy. She had stopped in the gates when she saw the three of them standing in front of the guild doors.

"We're going on a mission that's all." Mira said and tugged her shirt. She wasn't used to wearing one anymore as her more common outfit was a maroon dress.

"Who's going to look after Lily if you two go on a mission?" Lucy wondered, hoping that it was not her at the same time. She liked children but didn't know how to take care of one, especially Natsu's. Oh yes, Lucy has heard all of the destruction tales of Fairy Tail that concerned the pink haired wrecking ball of a man and she could only wonder what feats his daughter could do.

"It's Lily's mission. I'm supervising and Mira is going as she is Lily's trainer." Natsu said in clarification before Mira could butt in and confuse the blonde even more. Lucy looked at the three and only now seemed to notice that they all were ready for travel. Then she thought about her book and made a decision.

"Can I come?" She asked Natsu, who she thought of being the leader of the group. She was surprised when Lily tugged her skirt and nodded before answering.

"Of course Lucy-neesan can come." Lily said happily and placed her hand on the celestial mages hand before she had any chance to say another word. Natsu sighed again and shrugged his shoulders while Mira smiled in her palm.

"Well, you heard the leader. Let's go." Mira said and started to walk. She got two steps before a huge hand grabbed her shoulder.

"Where are you going Nee-san.?" Elfman asked his older sister. He had seen her new outfit and had guessed that she was going on a mission, he only hoped that she wasn't going with whom he thought she was.

"Going on a mission with Lily and Natsu." Mira said straightly. She didn't keep secrets from Elfman, not even when it concerned Natsu. Elfman growled at the news and narrowed his eyes.

"Wasn't one Strauss enough Natsu?" Was all he got to say before Mira slammed her hand on his mouth. Natsu looked Elfman sadly and took Lily's hand in his and started to walk towards the forest.

"Let's go Lucy, Lily. Mira, we'll wait at the forest entry." Natsu said without turning his head. He knew better than to try and talk to Elfman, he didn't want to listen to him so it didn't matter what Natsu said to him. Lucy followed Natsu and Lily while turning her head over to Mira and Eflman. Elfman looked angry as he stared at Natsu's back and Mira was equally annoyed by the looks of it. "_Wonder what's that about?_" Lucy thought and shaked her head. "_Gah, I need to start writing these questions up so I remember them._" She made a mental note while hitting her fist on her palm, an action that Lily watched with great interest.

"Dad." Lily said to her father with a serious tone as she kept her eyes on Lucy.

"What honey?" Natsu asked and gave a look to Lily to let her know that he was listening her as they walked.

"I think Lucy-neesan is crazy." She replied and kept watching Lucy being silent and waving her arms about.

"I think you're right." Natsu said when he looked what had made Lily say something like of Lucy.

"C'mon, we need to hurry. I want to get as close to the town as we can before night comes." Natsu said and picked Lily up before he started walking faster.

***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***

Mira caught up with them after a while and the look on her face made it clear that she did not want to talk about it.

"So, what's the mission?" Lucy asked the group, trying to break the silence.

"We're going to beat up baddies! Some evil things are in someones somewhere and we are going to tell them that they're bad." Lily said happily from Natsu's arms which made Lucy sweatdrop at the little girl.

"A monster extermination. A Lacrima mine was invaded and we're going to drive the monsters out so they can continue doing work." Mira explained to Lucy. Lucy nodded in response, already writing things down in her head.

"Say, Mira. Can I ask you a question?" Lucy asked Mira after making sure that Natsu wasn't close.

"You already did but sure." Mira answered and smiled.

"Why was Elfman like that?" Mira sighed at the womans question and looked at Natsu.

"He blames Natsu for something. It happened a long time ago but he just can't forgive him." Mira explained the situation that happened before they left.

"No, I'm not going to explain it further, that is for Natsu to decide." Mira continued after she had seen the curious look on Lucy's face.

"But he doesn't seem to want to talk about it." Lucy replied, hoping to get help from Mira.

"Well, then there's nothing you can do is there." Mira said flatly and continued walking in silence. The group made their way through the forest with little happening, Lily only left the group three times when she saw a rabbit or a squirrel. Mira noticed that Lucy looked the way Natsu and Lily were with sadness which made her think that there might be more to the reason why Lucy were so interested in Natsu and his little girl. She wanted to ask about more but was certain that the blond would not tell anything, personal matters were personal matters after all.

***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***

It had gotten dark when Natsu decided that they needed to get rest, it was not a good idea to exterminate monsters if you're feeling tired and the way Lily kept dozing off in his arms were a clear sign that she was tired. Mira had wondered when they would make camp but knew that if Lily wanted to keep doing missions, she needed to learn quickly that the travels could take long when walking. And that happened alot around Natsu. They spotted a small stream on the left of the small animal path they had turned to and all three turned for the stream with unanimous decision.

"Thank god! My feet are killing me!" Lucu said as she dropped on the ground and took her boots off.

"Well of course they are, your choice in footwear is pretty bad for a walk in the forest." Mira said and gave Natsu a fishing rod which made the man blink. Natsu kept looking the fishing rod and then Mira a few times and his eyes were asking if Mira was serious. Mira only nodded and took Lily off from Natsu's hands and put the fishing rod in her place.

"I wasn't thinking about a walk in the woods when I woke up this morning!" She said and huffed to the other woman who were smiling and setting Lily in a sleeping bag.

"Well you could've gone to change or borrow from the guild. I'm sure there are a few people who are your size." Mira answered and started to make a small campfire. Lucy watched the woman in confusion.

"Why are you making a fire?" Lucy asked as she couldn't figure out the reason of making a fire if they were going to sleep.

"Because the night is cold, there are wildlife here and I don't want to wake up only to see Lily missing as a bear had dragged her away. Besides, we need to eat." Mira said and frowned as the campfire didn't want to stay on a nice cone shape she had tried to put them.

"So Lucy, tell me. Are you interested in Natsu?" Mira asked out of the blue, effectively blanking any means of thinking from the blonde.

"W-what made you think that Mira?" Lucy stuttered in bewilderment. "_Does it really look like that to others?_" She thought and waited for Mira to answer. Mira placed the last twig in the pile and turned to face Lucy while rubbing pieces of bark from her hands.

"Well, you always seem to be with him. I mean, you talk to him and ask questions about him in the guild." Mira said and squatted to the backpack Natsu had brought along to find something to light the fire with but had no luck. "_Figures, he wouldn't need anything now would he?_" Mira chided herself.

"Well, it's because he sparks my interest." Lucy said and started to go through her own bag when she understood what Mira was searching for.

"Not in that way! It's just that I'm a writer and he seems to be a walking conflict." Lucy said and pulled out a tinderbox and passed it on to Mira.

"Conflict? What do you mean?" Mira asked and squatted next to the twigs, starting to light the fire.

"He's usually so carefree that you wouldn't think that he has a daughter and sometimes it seems that he is so dense that he wouldn't notice someone to be attracted to him even if he was told straight in the face." Lucy said, remembering the appraising looks from the women that Natsu had got and ignored when they had been in Everlue. Mira smiled slightly and gave Lucy her tinderbox after the fire had been started.

"That's true, he wouldn't notice." Mira said with a hint of sorrow that Lucy did not miss.

"Could it be Mira that YOU are interested in Natsu?" Lucy asked carefully, making Mira's cheek get slightly pink.

"you don't need to answer if you don't want to but I can tell you right now, you got nothing to worry about me." Lucy said and then blushed herself when her stomach grumbled. Mira didn't say anything as she suddenly found the crackling campfire very interesting.

***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***

"Can you sense it?" A woman in a black cloak asked the figure standing next to her, both facing towards a small source of light flicking in the distance. The figure nodded silently, concentrating on the pulsating feeling of magic of divine origin.

"How many?" The woman continued and took a communication lacrima from the depths of the cloak. The silent figure lift two fingers, making the woman smile.

"Found you!" She said happily and squeezed the lacrima, making it turn deep indigo in color and when it turned green, she let it go. The two figures then retreated in the depths of the forest, not noticing a tuft of pink hair not far from where they were.

"_What was that?_" Natsu thought as he felt the rush of something familiar close by. "_It was like HIM, but it can't be. Not here._" He kept thinking, trying to remember if he'd felt something similar ever before and almost lost the fishing rod while being immersed in his thoughts as it was now roughly pulled towards the center of the stream. He quickly stood up and started to pull the rod while backing up, the familiar fleeting feeling already forgotten.

When he came back to the campsite, he was happily surprised at the campfire being already done. Natsu had thought that it was his responsibility as he had the fire magic and hadn't packed anything to light the fire with.

"Hello girls, I see that you've got the fire going." He said and placed the fish on top of the fire, glad that he was also unneeded in making a stand on top of it to cook the fish he brought.

"Yes, and no thanks to you." Mira said and gave Natsu an irritated look.

"Oh c'mon Mira. It's not like I need anything to light fire's with." Natsu said with mock hurt and Mira glared at Natsu but both soon broke in to a laughter.

"Lily being sleeping okay?" He asked and turned the fish on it's other side so it wouldn't burn.

"Yeah, and there hasn't been a speck of fire from her either." Mira said and looked at the sleeping form of Lily, who was now completely submerged in the sleeping bag.

"Fire?" Lucy asked in confusion, she had been quiet and let the two of them talk but this piqued her interest.

"Yeah. You see, when two mages have a child, it's common for the child also be able to use magic. It's usually from either parent but in some rare cases, and this is true for Lily, the child get's a combination of both." Mira explained. Master had told her this before and she knew that not everyone knew about this small, but sometimes important piece of information. Natsu stayed silent and stared at the campfire while Lucy nodded at the words of Mira, writing on a small memo pad. "_If only you were right Mira, I have a feeling that this is all on me._" He thought and took the fish from the fire as it smelled ready.

"Eat up girls, tomorrows going to be a hard day." Natsu said and ate in silence. Both Mira and Lucy wondered at the reclusive behavior of Natsu but counted it for him being tired. Mira and Lucy went to the tent with Lily while Natsu stayed outside, his body could stand the elements better than the other two and he really didn't need to worry about being cold. "_What was that feeling. It was so familiar and so close to being his that it's starting to bug me._" Natsu thought as he stared at the stars, feeling homesick.

The girls woke up the next day when Natsu was shouting them to wake up and that he and Lily was already to go. Both of them groaned, Lucy from being tired as she was not a morning person and Mira from being in pain as it had been a long time since she had last slept outside.

"I don't get it. How can you so energetic right at the morning." Lucy said and yawned while rubbing her eyes.

"Habit. I had to learn how to wake up early and not be sleep addled." Natsu said and waited for Mira and Lucy to pack up the tent.

"Has she eaten?" Mira asked and looked at Natsu. Natsu crossed his arms and looked at Mira like she was an idiot.

"Right, never mind." Mira said and walked to the pack Natsu had on his back to tie the tent on it. After tugging it firmly, Mira was satisfied by her work and the group started their walk.

***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***MaP***

It was mid-day when they entered the small town and saw an idyllic scene of a regular country market. People were walking from stall to stall with baskets in their hands, picking vegetables and small items.

"Nice looking place. Hard to think that there would be monsters here." Natsu said as they walked along the main road of the town. Lucy and Mira nodded while Lily was shifting her eyes from one stall to another, getting more excited by the second.

"Daddy, can I get a new toy?" Lily asked when she spotted one stall selling freshly made wooden toys. Natsu chuckled and ruffled the little girls hair.

"After work kiddo. Then you can do what you want with your share." He said, getting an annoyed groan from the girl.

"But daddyy!" She whined and watched the toys with longing.

"No buts. Work comes first, playtime is later." Natsu said with a stern voice. Mira smiled at the scene. Even if Natsu was a bit of a loose cannon, he would always make sure that Lily did what was needed before she got to the fun things she wanted. It had taken Mira a few weeks to teach the concept to Natsu but it had been worth it, he had understood it and hadn't stopped using the most effective tool for rising children. Threatening, bribery and extortion, worked like a charm.

"Fine, but after work, I'm getting a new toy and you can't stop me." Lily said and started pouting. Natsu only nodded, knowing that it wouldn't make any difference even if he did say something.

After the market they came to the industrial part of the town. Many offices of multiple mining companies were present and they were a bit overwhelmed by the multitude of them. One worker saw the group staring at the offices with a confused look and came over to ask if they needed directions. They explained that they were mages on a job to empty out an lacrima mine and the worker gave them directions to the office of the company who had posted the request. It hadn't been a secret that one of the mines had been overrun by arachnids and there was supposed to be a group of mages on the way to empty the mine.

They had to walk to the other end of the district to get to the office of the manager of the mine. They entered the office and was greeted by a man with white hair and mustache who offered them coffee and small pastries. The group declined the kind offer and informed that they could most likely start mining again the next day as they had planned on emptying out the mine during this day. The manager promised all of them a lacrima lamp if they really did get the mine empty in one day, he would be most grateful for it as they were falling more and more behind schedule.

"Lacrima lamps, why would I need lacrima lamps." Natsu wondered aloud when they were walking to the mine in question.

"They are really nice for decoration, you can get them in any color and they don't smoke like candles or torches."Mira said as she had heard Natsu. Natsu turned his head towards the white-haired woman and stared. Mira shifted on her feet, feeling uncomfortable under the stare.

"What?" She asked.

"Nothing. Didn't think that the Demon would be so...domestic." Natsu said with small smile and continued to walk with Lily. Lucy shaked her head when she saw Mira's dark aura rise at Natsu's comment.

"And what's wrong with me being domestic Natsu?" Mira asked with a dark growl while her hair was starting move around her like it was caught in the wind.

"Nothing wrong. If I'd pick something, I would say it makes you more cute than anything." Natsu replied with a normal tone, making Mira's mood brighten and a small smile worked it's way on her lips. Lucy heard Natsu and started to wonder if Mira's interest was one-sided as she had originally thought. "_I'm cute! He said I'm cute!_" Mira thought happily and started skipping. She stopped when she felt Lucy's stare on her back.

"I think you should talk to Natsu, Mira." Lucy whispered to the woman and kept her eye on the man in question, not wanting him to hear something he shouldn't.

"L-lucy! What are you saying?" Mira whispered back with a hurried tone. Lucy giggled at Mira and her nervousness of talking about the subject.

"I'm saying that you should talk to him! You'll get nowhere if you just stand in the sidelines. Besides, you already got points in." Lucy said back with a whisper.

"P-points? What points?" Mira asked in confusion which made Lucy stare the woman in wonderment. "_How can she be so dense on these things? Or maybe she really doesn't get it when it comes to her._" Lucy thought. So far Mira hadn't lived up to her reputation of a matchmaker that the Sorcerer Weekly had given her.

"Well, Lily already likes you. It should be easier for you to get Natsu like you back too." Lucy said and patted the woman on the shoulder.

"I don't like him like that!" Mira said with a blush while Lucy smiled at ther.

"Sure you don't." Lucy only said and kept smiling.

"I really don't." Mira said louder and slapped Lucy on her shoulder.

"You don't what Mira?" Came Natsu's voice from behind their back and froze Mira on the spot. Natsu had wondered where the two were and had spotted them walking slowly with their heads near each other and had started to walk back to them. He had wanted to tell them to hurry up but then Mira had suddenly spoke a bit loudly and made him wonder what the two women were talking about.

"N-nothing." Mira said and walked quickly forward the road, not looking at Natsu. Natsu frowned at Mira, it was not unusual that she kept secrets but something told Natsu that this wasn't any regular secret.

"What were you guys talking about?" He asked Lucy and turned his head to her. Lucy shaked her head as she watched Mira walking away with her back stiff.

"Nothing important Natsu. Girl stuff." Lucy said to Natsu and gave him a look full of pity. "_What the hell?_" Natsu thought and was confused.

"Hurry up daddy, Lucy-neesan. I can see the mine!" Lily shouted. She had gotten pretty far with Mira as she had scooped Lily into her arms and walked with a fast pace, trying to get some distance between her and Natsu so she could compose herself. The two picked up their pace and soon they were in a small compound that had a fence go around it. The sign that told what mine and who's it were was ripped off from top of the gate and tossed aside somewhere while the gates themselves were inside in pieces. Natsu smelled arachnids and something else he couldn't figure out. The smell only got stronger when they got closer to the real entrance of the mine.

"Be careful. There is something else there than spiders." Natsu said and walked to the entrance.

"L-like what?" Lucy asked, being nervous as she didn't get along with spiders all that well. She could do well without seeing a spider ever again.

"Don't know and I intend to find out. Mira, stay behind me with Lily please. I don't like the feeling I get from here." Natsu said and pleaded the woman with his eyes. Natsu knew that if Mira's thirst for a battle rose, her inner demon would surely want to fight and not babysit. Mira nodded at Natsu and they walked in the mine slowly.

* * *

Wow was this hard to write. One reason is that I'm not that familiar with this type of writing, my other stories tend to be more grim and things like that. Also I tried to add more father-daughter things and more sisterly bonding and would like to know how I did. As always, read and review. If there is something wrong here (I'm sure there is something) please tell me what in specific felt wrong for you so I can do better next time.

Also, I would like to give a shout out to Bob Bandicoot, he was a huge help to me in this chapter and you should read his stuff. Really good I promise! Made me like Naruto characters for one :D But anyway, I would not have finished this chapter if not getting help from him so thanks a lot.

**One Half:** Hopefully this explained things for you! And I really am sorry about the quality, It's really sub par compared to your work.

**treeofsakuras:** Here is a new chapter like you wanted :D I hope you like this one too!

**Kokuja-fafnir:** I've tried to do better on the grammar, hopefully it is better now. If not, I'll try harder next time! And I think I made the wrong impression last time which I hopefully corrected at the start of this.

Thanks for all who followed and favorited and reviewed! Thanks a lot really, there are some pretty big names (in my opinion) writing Fairy Tail fics and it makes me nervous about my work. See you all in the next chapter. Unlike this one, it will probably come out pretty quick as I got most of it planned out.

-DraXXter-


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